Editing Robert Smithson (section)

===Early work===

He primarily identified as a painter during this time, and his early exhibited artworks had a wide range of influences, including science fiction, [[Catholic art]] and [[Pop art]].<ref name="Tsai">{{cite book |last1=Tsai |first1=Eugenie |title=Robert Smithson Unearthed: Drawings, Collages, Writings |date=1991 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-231-07259-7}}</ref> He produced drawings and [[collage]] works that incorporated images from [[natural history]], science fiction films, classical art, religious iconography, and pornography including "[[homoerotic]] clippings from [[beefcake magazines]]".<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/arts/design/24kimm.html?ex=1180929600&en=97cea2a283bb6762&ei=5070Sculpture From the Earth, but Never Limited by It], ''NY Times'', 2005, retrieved October 21, 2009</ref> Paintings from 1959 to 1962 explored "mythical religious archetypes" and were also based on [[Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' such as the paintings from 1959 ''Wall of Dis'' and ''The Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise'', that correspond to the ''Divine Comedy'''s three-part structure.<ref name="Tsai" /><ref name="Roberts" />

After a break from the art world, Smithson reemerged in 1964 as a proponent of the [[minimalism|minimalist]] movement.<ref name=Hobbs >{{cite book |last1=Hobbs |first1=Robert |title=Robert Smithson: Sculpture |url=https://archive.org/details/robertsmithsonsc00hobb |url-access=registration |date=1981 |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca, NY |isbn=0-8014-1324-9}}</ref> His new work abandoned the preoccupation with the body that had been common in his earlier work, and he began to use glass sheet and [[neon lighting]] tubes to explore visual refraction and mirroring.<ref name="Hobbs" /> His wall-mounted sculpture ''Enantiomorphic Chambers'' was made of steel and mirrors and created the optical effect of a "pointless vanishing-point".<ref name="writings" /> [[Crystalline]] structures and the concept of [[entropy]] became of interest to him and informed a number of sculptures completed during this period, including ''Alogon 2'', (1966) composed of ten units, the title of which refers to the Greek word for an unnamable, irrational number.<ref name="Hobbs" /> Smithson's interest in entropy led him to write about a future in which "the universe will burn out into an all-encompassing sameness".<ref name="writings" /> His ideas on entropy also addressed culture, "the urban sprawl and the infinite number of housing developments of the post war boom have contributed to the architect of entropy". He called these urban/suburban sprawls "slurbs."<ref name="writings" /> Smithson viewed entropy as a form of transformation of society and culture, which is shown in his artwork, for example, the non-site pieces. Smithson became affiliated with artists who were identified with the [[minimalist]] or [[Primary Structures]] movement, such as [[Nancy Holt]] (whom he married), [[Robert Morris (artist)|Robert Morris]] and [[Sol LeWitt]].<ref name="Reynolds" />